US gas prices jump 19 cents a gallon

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 19 cents over the past three weeks.

The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices now puts the average price for a gallon of regular at $3.76.

Analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that's 91 cents higher than the price at this time last year.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/04/10/state/n110656D67.DTL&tsp=1

[Newsjock]

1. There is no inflation

And you should stop saying that there is!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Invest in wheelbarrows.

You didn't hear it from me.

[Mojorabbit]

25. Today silver is at 41.33.

Money is going into commodities it seems?

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Ben Bernanke said inflation is contained just like he said sub prime was contained

Never mind the fact that inflation recently jumped at it's highest rate in 37 years and Benny doesn't look at food and energy.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Inflation is About as Contained as The Radiation Spewing From Fukushima

[ixion]

6. spot on, that.

[stockholmer]

17. I wonder if 'hedonic adjustments' work on Plutonium 238

:sarcasm:

[walerosco]

10. Right on

You cant expect the economy to absorb 600b without it affecting the value of the dollar. But if we are lucky, the feds would stop at QE2 and not try a third version. Plus when you compare the gas price to ouch of gold, gas prices are actually decreasing. So there goes your speculation and scarcity excuse

[stockholmer]

18. the Fed has painted itself into a corner in terms of QE3/inflation

Dollar crisis/huge inflation is probably on the way, especially if the Fed launches QE3 and doesn't raise interest rates.

But, if they do not do QE3, the economy tanks further, plus raising interest rates just several hundred basis points will add hundreds upon hundreds of billions to the deficit in terms of debt service.

classic catch-22

[roamer65]

26. They will launch QE3, QE4, QE5 and on...

The Fed has no choice but to create currency. There is no political will for a true austerity budget.

You are right, stockholmer.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Well somebody had to pay for the BP oil spill, why not you? n/t

[lib2DaBone]

5. I've heard that the oil terminals and pipelines are overflowing....

There is no more room in the storage tanks in West Texas.

For a commodity that is scarce..(supposedly), it sure seems that the oil companies are making sure we continue using as much oil as possible.

[stockholmer]

19. its due to lack of refinery capacity & logistics of supply chain,this is why WTI is so low vs Brent

[maxsolomon]

7. We're well into the territory when gas prices will hurt the economy.

Gas for my 15 mpg SUV is now 25 cents/mile in Seattle. It's been mothballed. My Saab is marginally better at 22 mpg, that's over 17 cents/mile.

Fuck the oil speculators, but go Arab revolutions!

[Tesha]

13. And isn't it funny? When gas was $0.99, we were told that a $0.50/gallon gas tax...

...that would used for things like infrastructure
improvements would break the economy.

But somehow it's apparently okay that oil
companies imposed $2.50/gallon in "additional
dealer profits" from which our economy takes
no capital investment benefit.

Tesha

[stockholmer]

23. retail dealers(petrol stations) only make 10-20 cents max per gallon profit, & less as prices rise

It's the oil companies who reap the huge windfalls.


http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/rip-offs/what-gas-stations-wont-tell-you-19750/

"Stations earn on average between 10 and 15 cents on a gallon of gas. Ironically, they earn the least when prices are highest. When fuel climbs, gas stations must shrink their profit margin to remain competitive, meaning they earn less per gallon than usual. But another big cost during tough times is something they can’t do anything about—credit card fees, which add up to about 2.5 percent of all purchases. When gas is at, say, $2 a gallon, the station pays credit card companies 5 cents a gallon; when gas hits $3, that fee becomes 7.5 cents—more than half the station’s entire average profit. “Those credit card fees are miserable for the gas station business,” says Mohsen Arabshahi, who owns five Southern California gas stations.

How do station owners make up for lost revenue? “Prices go up like a rocket and come down like a feather,” says Richard Gilbert, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley. For several weeks after wholesale prices drop, stations can earn as much as 20 cents a gallon before retail prices are lowered to reflect the change."

[Tesha]

24. "Additional dealer profits" was a joke.

I didn't mean "dealers" literally as in
"retailers", I meant "dealer" more in the
sense of "drug dealer", selling to the
addicted. It's also the exact term used
by car dealers when they can skim extra
profit off a hot-selling model.

Tesha

[stockholmer]

27. ahhh, thanks for the clarification, my idiomatic command of US english betrayed my Swedish eyes, lol

:hi:

[DJ13]

8. Just like the housing bubble, the gov is letting the speculators run amok

This bubble will end the same way, but not before it wrecks our economy completely.

We really cant afford to let these criminals self regulate any longer, their greed always gets the best of them and WE pay the price.

[dipsydoodle]

11. Quite aside

from letting the dollar sink which is having an even greater effect. All they've got of course is increase interest rates and screw you with inflation.

Just wait until the petrodollar scam comes to an end - then you will be truly fucked.

[lib2DaBone]

12. You have nailed it... When the Petro-dollar oil scam comes to an end..

When the American people realize that this country is run by crooks, grifters, carpet baggers and snake-oil salesmen.. we might have a chance to recover... but I wouldn't bank on it.

[Thunderstruck]

14. It's good that you wouldn't bank on it because you'd lose your shirt.

[dipsydoodle]

15. Usual gibberish

I should have said "All they've got to do of course is increase your interest rates but that will screw you with inflation"

[stockholmer]

20. actually its the other way round,keeping discount rate near zero's a fundamental driver of inflation

as is quantitative easing.

Look back to Volcker in 1981, he took the prime rate to 21.5% to snuff out inflation that was peaking at 13.5%.

Now, even a 11% prime rate (half of 1981's) will push the total debt service the US has to pay each year (both on and off-budget debts) from around $300 billion to over $1.5 trillion.

The budget deficit alone would be over $3 trillion for ONE year.

its a clusterf$%k

[walerosco]

21. can we hold it off just untill am dead and gone

I dont have any kids so if I can just ride it out, I will be goood :)

[SkyDaddy7]

16. We all knew this would happen once the economy...

began to get better! I just hope this does not reverse the all the progress that has been made up to this point!

[sarcasmo]

22. Moped sales should be pretty good this summer.